Pete over at BlueGrassRoots agrees that this is a bad idea. It's nice that liberal boys agree with me in general, but Pete tends to go the way of making light of the majority of sex crimes. He claims that the category of "sex crime" is too broad, and encompasses too many "little things" like pissing in public and copping a feel at a bar/in the workplace. Ok, so maybe taking a leak in public shouldn't be considered a sex crime, but he makes it sound like it should be ok to "mistake a woman's daring glances for an invitation to grab ass." Needless to say, it's not. And, as TravisG points out in the comments, his "boys will be boys" defense is tired and overused, not to mention misogynistic and damaging.

But I digress.

The basic problem here?

Castration will not stop a man from committing some kind of violence against women - or men, for that matter.
Rape crisis centers, women's advocacy centers, and numerous academic studies have asserted time and time again that rape is about power, not sex.
Therefore, rapists (the vast majority of the time) don't rape just to get their jollies or alleviate sexual frustration. They rape to give themselves a sense of control, of power.
Chopping off a guy's dick is not going to change his desire for power or control.
In fact, I would imagine that the involuntary loss of something that itself symbolizes male privilege, and therefore power, would probably exacerbate the problem.

Of course, then there's the problem of assuming that you can castrate all sex offenders, which assumes that all sex offenders are men. Because, you know, women never rape or commit sex crimes. Duh - you need a penis to do that.

From forbes.com, as part of their 100 Most Powerful Women report (separate, of course, from their 100 most powerful people, because women are hardly represented on there and, of course, are a 'special case' when it comes to that broad category of people...)

The 100 Most Powerful Women
Poll
07.28.05, 6:00 PM ET

In which fields are women held back by their gender?

Politics (32 %)
3923 Vote(s)

Business (21 %)
2616 Vote(s)

It is no longer an issue (15 %)
1835 Vote(s)

Science (8 %)
1030 Vote(s)

Being a woman helps (7 %)
804 Vote(s)

Academics (5 %)
552 Vote(s)

I don't know (3 %)
391 Vote(s)

Medicine (3 %)
351 Vote(s)

Entertainment (2 %)
250 Vote(s)

The media (2 %)
186 Vote(s)

The arts (1 %)
156 Vote(s)

Humanitarian endeavors (1 %)
100 Vote(s)

Total Votes: 12194

Do people really think that "it is no longer an issue"?
It wouldn't be so bad if that choice wasn't the third most popular choice when people take this poll. That many people -- 1,835 people, a scant portion of the population, yes - thinking that the glass ceiling has been permanently shattered is really frightening to me. Plus the 7% who answered that it actually helps - in all areas and fields of profession - to be a woman...Especially when these people who read forbes.com are exactly the people we need to acknowledge the glass ceiling.....

Not to mention the fact that there isn't even an option on the poll to click "these are all still pretty inhospitable to women" or "duh, you idiots, the glass ceiling exists everywhere" makes it pretty impossible to fully acknowledge the existence of said impedimentary ceiling.

Like when they want to have a float in a Halloween parade in York, PA entitled "Dr. Butcher's Chop Shop of Choice Cuts", which would feature fetuses and mutilated body parts.

Honestly, guys.
That's just gross.

I mean, I know it's Halloween and all, but.....

Ew.

(Happy news: one of the biggest sponsors of the parade, which usually gets about 30,000 spectators, has decided to pull its sponsorship because of this intended float, which means the entire parade will probably be nixed. Thus, there'll probably be no scary creepy anti-choicers running around on Halloween with bloody fetuses.)